


Broken Things

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, AU Snape is not a professor, Child, Disability, F/M, Historical AU, Marriage, Sex, Tagged non con due to historical period, Wedding, Younger Snape, arranged marriage of sorts, victorian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 03:43:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21047753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Broken thing do not always need to be fixed. Severus has been getting the suggestion to get married by his boss Lucius Malfoy for years. He agrees on one condition she must be intelligent.Hermione is in her twenties she’s happily headed to spinsterhood. She teaches and enjoys it, but when her father insists she marry a grandson of a squib who hates magic, and will snap her wand, she turns to her old friend from school Draco Malfoy.Who knows just the wizard to help. Not every broken thing needs to be fixed.





	Broken Things

Severus stood trying to shift his weight off his bum left leg, he was thankful to still have it, but standing for a long period of time still caused a great deal of pain. Why was he standing outside of a bookshop in Edinburgh? The son of the man who shipping business he had worked on for a decade insisted he had the perfect bride for him. He went to school with her in the highlands. 

She too came from less than stellar background. She was a muggleborn, and he a half-blood with a muggle father. She was, however, the top of her class, and comfortable enough to interact with the upper crust of pureblood society he was forever trying to cling too. Hermione Jean Granger wasn't Draco’s first choice. She was chosen to meet Severus after a long list of refusals. 

Not one pureblood man wanted to marry his daughter pure or not, or even most half-bloods, to a handicapped half-blood who worked in the shipping industry. Just because it was one of the Malfoy’s many businesses did not mean it was a well-liked one. That's why Hermione was who Draco went with. Her muggle family was middle class, and struggling to find her a wizard who could accept that she was a bookworm, a teacher, and from what he had said a bit of a smart mouth on her. 

Hermione Jean Granger was far from the proper lady, but Severus Tobias Snape had zero interest in a proper wizarding or muggle lady. They bored him to death. And they were likely to spend haphazardly the small bit of money he had worked so hard to earn. Someone like Ms. Granger had her benefits far more than giving birth to a son. If she was smart as Draco claimed. 

A business partner of sorts, their marriage, after all, was not going to be a love match…

He saw her then, Draco walking at her side. Brown curls tied back out of her face, calculating brown eyes, her dress white with flowers, and a blue cloak that flapped in the wind behind her. Like Draco, she was about a decade younger than him. But, that was common in both the muggle and wizarding world. They stopped in front of him, Draco greeted him, and she shockingly reached for his hand to shake it.

Draco elbowed her in the ribs, she held firm, Severus was shocked by her boldness, but also intrigued. Instead of shaking it he pulled one on her grabbing her small hand and kissing her knuckles. He whispered softly, ”It's nice to finally meet you, Ms. Granger, I am Severus Snape.” This witch surely was not like the rest, far from meek and whiny like the muggleborns he knew, but also not going to look down on him like most half-bloods and all purebloods. She also had a spark that left him wondering if he were to earn her love that they could have a happy life together. 

They walked into the bookshop with Draco on their heels. He was after all her escort, she had no siblings magical or muggle, and her parents did not have a desire to be in the magical world. Her eyes widened at the shelves filled with all the books. She smiled, sighed and then strode right past him to a far shelf. He followed her, happy that she seemed to like the place. He couldn't help but stare as she fingered a few books lovingly. She reached for one pulled it off the shelf and started to read it. 

He looked over her shoulder, he towered over the small woman, he expected for a second it would be something typical for the few young women who bother to read at all. Silly magic, happy magic as he thought of it. Instead, it was a book on healing magic.

She snapped the book shut, it sounded quite a bit louder than it should of in the quiet bookshop. Hermione said, “looking over someone’s shoulder is not a polite thing to do, Severus”, though her tone was more joking than upset.

He mumbled, “I was simply curious about what drew your attention”.

Hermione said with a small amount of cheek her eyes bright, ”you could've simply asked me”.

Severus said, ”and what would be the fun in that?” He sat down on a stool, his left leg was giving him more trouble than usual, his leg shook slightly as he sat down. 

.

Hermione asked him bluntly, ”why did you request to meet me?”

Severus did not answer at first, but asked his own question, ”why did you agree?” 

Hermione grabbed her own stool and sat in front of him. Her dress rode up slightly, showing off her black boots, her ankles tucked one behind the other. Her boots like her love of books showed her practical side. She said, “you first”.

He said, ”because Draco said you were the top of your class, funny, kind, you learned a great deal about the wizarding world, you loved to read, and because you were rather pretty”, he stared at his shoes at the last statement. ”Now it's your turn.”

  
  


She smiled at him, blushing a shade of bright pink. ”Well he told me you work under his father, that you were honest, hard-working, though stubborn as a mule, that you were unlikely to take away my freedom, that you might even let me continue to teach. That you view women in general, as a person, not as objects. That to me is the most important part to me, Severus. I don't expect you to love me, you barely know me, and I barely know you. I want you to be honest, kind to me, and treat me with respect. If you can agree with that I will happily marry you.”

His eyes widened at the last statement he expected he would have to woo her for far longer before she would consider marrying him. But, it seems like himself, Hermione Granger was a realist, just as he was. Severus took Hermione’s small hand in his own hands, his thumb rubbing the back of hers. He looked into her brown eyes, soft, gentle and intelligent. ”Will you marry me, Hermione” he whispered to her softly. 

This was not the proposal of Hermione's dreams. When she was a child dreamed of a man she loved asking her to marry him, but Hermione was not a child anymore. She was not foolish enough to believe in true love’s kiss. She was not someone who still believed a handsome prince would come riding in on a white horse to ”save her”. 

The closest thing Hermione would ever get to a Prince was Severus, a reasonable man who would give his wife the ability to have a life of her own, or so he claimed. He was better than her other option a muggle man who would either snap her wand or force her to use her magic to do his bidding. This man might not be the prince from a fairy tale, but even she could see he was the best she was going to get as a muggleborn. 

He wasn't terribly handsome, black long hair, not long enough to tie back, not short enough to stay out of his face. His nose had been broken before, and wasn't all that small. His skin was pale, his hands rough and scarred from hard labor. His eyes, however, reminded her of deep black pools, like the ocean at midnight, or the sky above it. 

His left leg clearly gave him trouble, but that was okay. Hermione was not someone to judge people for something they couldn't change. She would one day, however, like to hear the story of what caused that limp, but today was not the day.

She smiled at him, and held his hand in hers, clutching at it. ”Yes Severus, I will marry you.”

************************

The only two people that she was relatively close to that was not in this room were Draco and Astoria. In Draco’s case that only was because he was at a business meeting with his father. Hermione wished he was here. She wished it was not just herself saying good things about the man she was choosing to marry. Harry, Ginny, Ron, Pansy, and Luna sat in front of her. Astoria, Draco’s wife was in her confinement with her first child. Wizarding families, we're not as bad as dark age muggles, but Hermione still thought the practice was stupid. Astoria, or any pregnant witch for that matter, was not to leave their home for the last month of their pregnancy. 

  
  


That at the very least she if they were here would not be the only one understanding that it was a good choice, that she was marrying Severus Snape. Muggles had long since learned the practice of confinement had no benefit for mother or child, but not wizards. So her only other possible ally was functionally locked in her own home, with no lock on to keep her in. Besides the rules of their world that is. 

  
  


Luna might also take her side though, the girl was sweet and slightly in her own world, but the kindest person Hermione knew. 

Harry toyed with the spoon in his cup of tea, Ron stared out the window, Luna traced the table cloth with her finger, Pansy nibbled on a cookie, but Ginny’s blue eyes flamed with anger. She was the one most upset by Hermione’s choice to marry, but that was mostly due to the fact she wished Ron would dump Pansy, who was from a ”darker” family and marry Hermione. 

She ignored the reality that neither Ron or herself had even the slightest interest in one another. Severus at least seemed to click with Hermione in the short time she knew him, just a few weeks, more than Ron had clicked with her since their school days. 

Hermione said to Ginny, ”how dare you look down your nose at me like that! As if you a pure-blood witch know one thing about it's like to be a muggleborn! I know he's not perfect, but if I don't marry someone Ginny, my father’s gonna marry me off to the mill boy, his grandfather was a squib and he promised me he will snap my wand. I don't have any good options, Ginny, he's going to let me continue my job, and he's decent to me. Draco likes him as well.”

Ginny’s lace sleeve covered most of her hand as she picked up her cup of tea, ”you know you could marry someone else magical right? Someone less broken? Someone less like _him_ and more like what a typical young woman wants her husband to be like. ”

Hermione shook her head and said ”Draco has been trying to help, there is I repeat, no one else. Beyond that, because Severus’s father was a muggle and his disability he's in the same boat as I am. It's a marriage of convenience, with a touch of friendship to it.”

Harry spoke up finally and said something that shocked Hermione, ”I know Severus, he's a little rough, little harsh around the edges, not the kindest fellow by far, but he's decent to the men who he works with and he has honestly in the little I have seen of them, at the very least cares for Hermione as a friend.”

Ginny said ”okay, but if he hurts you he will have hell to pay”. 

Hermione smiled at her closest female friend, Ginny and her had been roommates at Hogwarts, and her marriage to Harry had only made the two women closer. ”I am sure Severus is well aware of that. The great Aurror Potter is my friend at all, and I know there is a rumor that his wife is also wicked with her wand.”

Ginny couldn't help but smile at that, and it caused Hermione’s heart to feel far less weighed down.

**********************

Hermione walked towards where Severus stood on the docks, Harry, her chaperone, followed close behind. Though he was trying to discrete, which she was grateful for. The dress she wore was something Ginny had bought for her and then nearly forced her to wear it today. It was a forest green, like the color of Slytherin, the house which Severus had been in at Hogwarts. 

The woman had also tried to insist that Hermione also needed a new cloak, she put her foot down on that one, her blue cloak was perfectly fine and less than a year old. 

Severus when she came close looked up from his papers and smiled at her. He was leaning on the cane she had given him. Her answer was upon giving him the ebony wood cane was ”better to use a cane and be able to stand longer without pain than to not and barely be able to stand for a short time.” The man had stubbornly agreed and had taken to using it. 

When she reached him, she could not help, but hug him. She whispered, so only he could hear her, ”I have missed your snarky comments, Severus, the weeks you have been gone.”

He laughed at that comment and said, “and I have missed you, Hermione.” 

Hermione said, ”how did the trip go?”

Severus said, ”good actually, I think I got the Malfoys a new contract on cotton from the united states. You should have been there Hermione, it's beautiful. Wide-open spaces, rolling hills, clear rivers you can see straight to the bottom of. The cities are far cleaner than London, and all the cities here. Beyond that, there are far fewer people. I know it would take a lot to move there, and their magical community is quite different than our own, it's just my own silly thoughts, Monie. But, I really think people from our situation could make a life there.”

Her brown eyes gaze into his black ones. Hermione doesn't know what to say, could she leave all of her friends behind? Everything she had ever known? Severus’s mother had died before he finished Hogwarts, his father and him were not on speaking terms. He was close to Draco, and even Lucius for that matter, but he didn't have the connections to England that she did. 

But, the American wizarding world was by far kinder to those of less than stellar magical blood. Their sons would not be outcasts because their mother was a muggleborn, and their father was the son of a muggle man. They would not be on the edge of society trying to make a living. They would never be like the Malfoys, but they could be legitimately upper-middle class. They didn't call it the ”American dream” for nothing. 

She says to him, “let's think about it, we have between now and the wedding to decide if we want to buy passage or a small home.” 

Hermione knew though, that Severus had already made his choice of what he would prefer, but she was grateful he was asking, not telling her what they should do. Hermione knew with this action more than anything she making the right choice to marry him. 

Talk was cheap, but when it was with actions it was worth far more.

Severus said to Hermione, ”let’s go to that walk through the park you have been wanting to take.”

She said, “let’s and come on Harry we are going to the park for a walk.” Her best friend turned red, he didn't enjoy being a chaperone, he felt like he was intruding, but better that than his friend to be labeled a ”loose woman”.

The odd trio set off from the docks to the park that was just under a mile away. 

********************

Hermione’s dress was a soft pale blue, it was quite simple and that was okay. Her father walked her down the aisle towards Severus, he had not offered her a chance to back out as was the typical tradition. She had agreed to marry the wizard who was ten years her senior, she was easing the burden that she, by her very magic, put on her family. Severus would treat her well, and take care of her, that was what mattered most. 

She had grown to like the man she was to marry, but this was far from a love match. They had only known each other for a few months. But, arranged or sort of arranged marriages were rarely love matches. Women in their world rarely married for love, unless you were the queen herself. Hermione was taught this by her mother long before she attended Hogwarts. It could be worse, Severus could be the kind of man who treated his wife like a broodmare, Hermione had known a few of those Daphne Astoria’s sister was married to one of them.

Now was not the time to think of other’s marriages though. Now was the time to take the last few steps towards Severus and say their vows. And that is what she did. 

Hermione could barely tell what she was said, Severus seemed just as uncomfortable as she with the attention. His left leg wobbled, she thought to herself, surely there was something out there to ease some of his discomfort from it. A friend from school asked her why she was willing to marry a broken man, her answer was not everything of value is flawless. Better a kind, thoughtful man with a damaged leg than a man who was handsome and break her wand. 

His long fingers tangled into her loose curls, and he kissed her. She let out a whine at the feeling, which allowed him to invade her mouth. Merlin, he was a good kisser, though she had never been properly kissed before. They walked hand and hand out of the small white church, she was barely able to take in the sights around her. Marriage was one thing Hermione had never feared, she knew what would happen, but her wedding night, on the other hand, no one had bothered to tell her what it would involve. And it scared her to bits. 

********************

They were at Severus’s small cottage, it was rather plain, but he had never seemed to her as someone who would be frivolous, and he also made it apparent in their conversation about the Americas he never saw fit to put roots down in England. He went about taking off his boots in his armchair by the fire. He was dressed in heavy black plain wizarding robes, they looked far better made than what he usually wore, though just as simple. 

She fidgeted where she stood. ”Hermione,” he said to her. ”I do not plan to hurt you, it can be pleasurable for both of us, but for that you will need to relax.” 

Hermione nodded. She hated to not understand something. She had tried to find books on the subject of intercourse but never found any wizarding or muggle. She asked him softly after she sat on the other chair by the fire, ”what does it involve? No one has ever explained it to me.”

Severus shut his eyes and sighed. Muggles, it seems they thought a wide-eyed fearful virgin was actually attractive. The only women that he had ever been with had known what they were doing. They knew what pleasure was and how to take it and give it. He knew any respectable woman he married would be a virgin, muggleborn or half-blood. 

He spoke honestly to his wife, it was for the best. But, he also tried to be as kind as he could be. He said to her, ”we will bathe separately first, it should help you calm down. Then we both will go to bed in our night clothes and or dressing gowns. You and I will kiss, I will touch you various places, and you are allowed to touch me. We will be totally undressed by then, I will enter your quim…” 

Hermione looked utterly horrified at the very thought. She went from bright red, to green, to an odd shade of purple. ”you mean my secrets?” 

Severus stared at her with sharp black eyes and said, ”yes”. This was why he did not do virgins, not that he had done many at all for that matter. He knew he was not an attractive man, he we temperamental, moody, he did not enjoy small talk. He was as pale as the belly of a fish, his hair always slightly greasy, his hands rough and stained from his work, but also his hobby of potions. 

Before the accident at sea, he was not a catch, and surely not now with a busted leg. And yet he was going to have Hermione Jean Snape in his bed tonight, she would carry his children. Lucius had told him to get her in line quickly and make her a proper wife, but the truth is how could he ask her to be a proper wife when he would never be a proper husband? 

His father had been a horrid example, snapping his mother’s wand on their wedding day. The shards of wood landing on her pale pink dress as she cried. Cried for her lack of a future, cried for the loss of her magic, and for her son who grew inside of her.

Severus would have preferred to be a bastard than to be the son of Tobias Snape, but you don't get a choice in that matter as much as you sometimes wish you did. 

”Come here,” he said to Hermione. And she came over to him without question. ”sit on my lap.” Her eyes went wide at that. ”I don't plan to do anything more than get you use to my touch, Mrs. Snape, I have zero interest in having sex in an armchair.” He had done it once and all it gave him was a rather knot in his back. But, that woman was the type to just want to lift her skirts and sit down on you. Even if it had been fun, his wife was not that type of woman. 

She sat on his knee. Merlin, she was small. At most maybe five foot two, possibly even shorter. He pushed her hair over one shoulder and whispers into the ear on the bare side. ”Relax, and do not care what others think. It is just you and me and what will make us feel good.”

Severus kissed her pale throat, runs a hand down her side, she leans into his touch, and back into him. The little sighs she makes go straight to his cock. He whispered softly to her ”I think it's time for your bath now”.

She nodded and stood. She faced him before she goes, and leaned down to kiss him. He's shocked, but plunged his tongue into her mouth. Then with that, she's gone to find the washroom, and to take her bath. And like a stupid little schoolboy who has never had sex, he's hard in his trousers from a couple of touches and a kiss.

******************

He was inside of her. Severus hated the way her brown eyes seemed distant. He was hurting her. The way the skin around her eyes tensed, she made no sound, her small hands clutched at the bedsheets under them. He wanted to pull out before he finished. He wanted to run from this room, but he did not. He needed an heir, and he prayed to Merlin he could help her learn to enjoy this. Lucius said virgins we're the most wonderful creatures, that maybe if they understood sex. She did not. 

He finished. And laid down on the bed next to her. She started to cry silent tears and it cut him like a rusty knife. He felt like he had just raped his wife. The truth was under law and God you couldn't rape your wife, but that didn't change the feeling that he had done just that. Maybe Narcissa could help her. She had been in the girl’s shoes. And was younger than her when she married Lucius. 

He whispered softly to her, ”I am sorry, Hermione.”

She said nothing for a second then said, ”it is what it is Severus. I need to learn how to accept my wifely duty.”

He turned away from her and whispered mostly to himself, ”You shouldn't have to accept anything it's supposed to bring both parties pleasure.”

Those words hung over them like a sheet. He because he hoped one day to teach her that, and her because she didn't dare to believe it was true. Not with the throbbing pain between her thighs. 

He cursed as he stood, his left leg nearly giving out on him. It was worse at night, and when he was tired. He reached for the small bottle he sometimes took when the pain in his leg became too much. It was expensive, that's why he didn't take it very much. Expensive to make, and even more to buy. He thought for a second of taking it himself, but he limped back to Hermione and handed it to her. 

”This should help with the pain,” he says.

She nodded and then took it, Hermione handed him back the vial. ”Severus, I don't blame you, and I know you weren't trying to hurt me. And I know you care about me. And this shows it more than anything. Thank you.”

He whispered to her as he sat the vial down and got into bed, ”I hope one day we can grow to love one another”.

********************

Hermione stood on the shore of a place called Virginia, with her daughter on her hip. Her hair was brown like her mother's, though her eyes were black like that of her father. Eileen was the most important thing to Hermione. Severus came in a close second. They were surely not a love match. They might not even be classically in love with each other right now the way the Greeks and Romans talked about it. 

But, that was okay. He was kind to her, he kissed her softly and never forced her to have sex with him. Her friends told her that was such an odd thing. He spoke to her as if she was just as capable as he was. He helped her with the household chores as much as his work allowed him to. He let her freely use magic, learn, and even teach some students a few days a week in their home. 

He was considered an odd fellow, but even the magical folk in their all magical town, but so was she considered odd.

But the most important thing was he promised her when it came time for their children, and most surely their daughters, we're ready to marry they could marry for love. Men, it wasn't such a shocking thing, but to allow his daughters to have love matches made him worth his weight in gold. 

Eileen would never marry a man she did not love and had only just started to become friends with. Eileen would never stare up blankly at her husband the way her mother had. The way it still caused her father pain to think about.

Hermione would massage the balm into Severus’s leg tonight, the one that seemed to help loosen the tense muscles. He would hold her in bed and maybe since Eileen was now two and a half they would talk about possibly having another child before they fell asleep. And maybe before their day started tomorrow they would try their hand again at figuring out what was ”making love” and what it could mean to them. 

Later as she rubbed the balm into his leg, he bit his lip, it wasn't the most comfortable thing. His nerves in it were both deadened and sensitive. 

Severus sighed, ”you know I am a man of few words, and I know I don't state my feelings enough.”

Hermione laughed softly, ”I wouldn't say that”, thinking back to the time he gave Tom Riddle a verbal lashing for daring to suggest those with muggle blood in them weren't as smart, as a pureblood. When the man was half muggle just like Severus himself. 

Severus said, ”Hermione, life, and love are not about one single day. But, I promise you will grow up knowing that she can and should marry for love. Our daughter will not walk in our shoes, and she will not have her wand snapped like her namesake, my mother.”

Hermione added, ”We will teach her what real love is by finding it ourselves along the way.”

Maybe conversations about future children and trying for a son could wait. A couple who hoped to make the best out of their situation, was trying to figure out what making love meant to them.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
